ROCKFORD — The busy thoroughfare is still lined by orange-and-white construction barrels. New curbs, gutters, sidewalks and a winding walking path frame rough-graded soil yet to be landscaped.

But it doesn’t take a whole a lot of imagination to see what West State Street from Independence to Kilburn avenues will look like, and Public Works Director Tim Hanson said businesses are lining up to be a part of a long-overdue revitalization of the corridor.

The first of a three-phase project to rebuild West State Street is expected to wrap up at the end of the month, with a ribbon-cutting in September.

“It’s long overdue,” Hanson said. “We’re taking out a lot of that blight.”

What was once a stretch of town that motorists passed through or avoided is being transformed into a city asset that Hanson said will attract business and commerce.

Plans were recently announced for a Save-A-Lot grocery at West State and Central Avenue.

Westside Ink, 1712 W. State St., opened in September during the height of the construction. Now that West State is passable, the number of customers has increased by 60 percent.

“We knew it was going to get better,” tattoo artist Duane Abernathy said. “There’s nothing like this on the west side.”

This $10 million phase of the project is being paid for with state transportation money and sales tax revenue. A 1 percent hike in sales tax passed in 2007 and renewed in 2011 pays for infrastructure improvements, including roads, watersheds, parkway trees, detention basins, dams and bridges. The sales tax applies to items bought within the city — except for groceries, medicine and titled vehicles — and generates about $16 million a year.

Hanson said the pay-as-you-go tax has paid for resurfacing of more than 115 miles of city streets since its passage. “That’s huge. But we still have a lot left to do.”

On the city’s to-do list is Harrison Avenue from 20th and Ninth streets, 11th Street from U.S. 20 to Harrison Avenue, Falcon Road, Airport Drive and a roundabout at Airport Drive and Kishwaukee.

The second $10 million phase of the West State Street construction, from Independence to Day avenues, is expected to start in 2016.

Construction on the city’s other main thoroughfare project, a $34 million rebuild of South Main Street, started in the spring and is expected to be finished at the end of 2015. Meanwhile, traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction on stretches of the road.

The first phase covers Clifton Avenue to Montague Street, the second Montague to Cedar Street. And a recreation path will connect to the 15th Avenue bridge leading to Marinelli Field.

Page 2 of 2 - “They are moving right along,” Hanson said. “They are on schedule.”

Duniel Quintana, an employee at Boost Mobile, 1003 S. Main St., said the cellular phone store has seen a 50 to 60 percent reduction in business since construction started.